


Keeping My Eyes On You

by zahnie



Series: The Sister Job [2]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Eliot Has a Sibling, F/M, Holding Hands, M/M, Minor Violence, Movie Night, Movie Reference, Multi, Pre-OT3, Pre-Relationship, Reuniting, Season/Series 02, The Princess Bride References, sort of, tragic past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5801632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zahnie/pseuds/zahnie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hardison found Eliot’s sister and of course all three of them will go see her. Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping My Eyes On You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Adelaide](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adelaide/gifts).



> Direct sequel to 'Listened To You Talk All Night'.  
> You wanted to know what happened to Hannah? Here ya go :D
> 
> Title from the song "Toes" by Lights.
> 
> Starts between 2x01 "The Beantown Bailout Job" and 2x02 "The Tap-Out Job", ends approximately between 2x06 "The Top Hat Job" and 2x07 "The Two Live Crew Job". Spoilers through mid-Season 3.
> 
> For Adelaide because Parker.

Parker wanders into Hardison’s kitchen, where Eliot is making breakfast. Some kind of egg-thing and it already smells good. Parker isn’t sure why food tastes better when Eliot makes it.

“What is it, Parker?” Eliot asks, not turning around.

She’s never startled him, no matter how sneaky she is. Hardison gets startled all the time.

“Did you mean it?” she asks.

“Mean what?”

“You said, ‘as you wish’. Like the movie. I heard you.” Parker is good at hearing things, less good at knowing what they mean. She’s learning, though, and sometimes people will tell her when she asks.

Eliot sighs and turns around. “It doesn’t have to mean anything,” he says. “It was a joke.”

“Oh.” It hadn’t sounded like a joke.

Eliot’s face makes a microexpression but she can’t tell what it was before it’s back to his regular ‘kind of annoyed’ face. “Go on, I have stuff to do in here,” he says, turning back to the stove.

Parker goes back into the living room, where Hardison is yawning and typing. She slips out the window without a sound.

The egg-things still smell good but she’s too restless to stay this time.

***

Nate calls later that day to say they’re taking the job and to meet him in Nebraska. Eliot texts her an hour before they have to be at the airport.

_Didn’t mean you had to leave._

Parker texts back, _i don’t have to do anything_

_True._

That makes her laugh. She’s going to remember this the next time Eliot tells her to do something.

Hardison grins at her when they meet up. “First class, me and you,” he says. “Better movies up there.”

She grins back at him. Sophie and Nate always hog the first class tickets.

***

The job goes well and Parker discovers some fun new snack foods. They start getting back into the routine: recons, briefings, jobs, celebrations. Parker gets more fighting lessons from Eliot and more grifting lessons from Sophie. The fighting is easier to understand and somehow less tiring. Parker thinks about what she would teach in thief classes. Climbing, jumping, sneaking… definitely crawling in air vents so she wouldn’t have to do it all the time.

Sophie has been kind of unfocussed and daydreamy since they stole the private school so Parker’s grifting lessons have become more frustrating for both of them. Also, Nate is scheduling more jobs than before and they are all overworked.

So when Hardison finds Eliot’s sister, Parker is ready for a distraction.

Sophie is at an art exhibit opening. Nate is off somewhere not-drinking. Parker, Eliot, and Hardison are having another movie night at Hardison’s place. The movie isn’t as good as the last one. Hardison thought it would be funny to watch ‘Parker’, a Jason Statham movie about a thief.

“He better not be trying to be me,” Parker says.

“It’s a movie. He couldn’t do any of this stuff really,” Hardison says, which is supposed to be comforting, maybe, but is not helpful because Parker knows it’s a movie but she wants to know if it’s a movie about _her_.

“He plays basically the same character in all his movies anyway,” Hardison continues.

Eliot is leaning forward like he’s about to say something when Hardison’s computer makes a ‘ding!’ noise and the movie is replaced by a picture of a woman.

Eliot makes a choking sound. Hardison pats him on the back. Eliot shrugs him off and stands up, not taking his eyes off the woman.

“Is it her?” Hardison asks.

“Yeah,” Eliot says, his voice really low.

It’s a photo from a driver’s licence or a work ID. The woman isn’t smiling. Parker can see pieces of Eliot in her face, in the shape of her eyes and the set of her jaw.

Eliot takes a deep breath. “Is she alive?” he asks Hardison.

Hardison is already on his way to the computer. “I think so. Hold on, let me check.” He taps a few keys and the whole driver’s licence comes up. It has an address in Phoenix, Arizona. “She renewed it last month so that’s good.”

The name on the licence is Sally Valentina Dawson. Parker says, “I like her new name.”

There’s a pause in Hardison’s typing so Parker looks up. Both Eliot and Hardison are staring at her.

“What?” she asks. “‘Hannah’ is okay but names are better if you choose them yourself.”

The boys look at each other, then Eliot shrugs in his ‘not asking’ way. He looks back at the picture.

Hardison starts typing again. “There’s been recent activity on her credit card. Yesterday.” He types a bit more and says, “Phoenix, same city as the address.”

Parker watches Eliot carefully. He looks like he’s watching a movie that only he can see. Memories can be like that. 

She didn’t hear the whole story about Eliot’s sister. She really was asleep for most of the night. But Eliot’s voice kept waking her up and then putting her back to sleep. But she’d heard a few things between his words.

Parker starts bringing departure times up on her phone. Phoenix is only five hours from Boston if they can get a direct flight.

“I’ve got her phone number,” Hardison says. “Phoenix is two hours behind us, so it might be early enough to call still.”

Eliot shakes his head. “It’s not.” He turns away from the picture and back to Parker and Hardison. “I’ll be back in a few days. Don’t let Nate take any jobs while I’m gone.”

Parker is confused. “But we’re going with you,” she says. She glances at Hardison, and then back at Eliot. Of course they’re going with him.

“Maybe Eliot wants to go by himself,” Hardison says, quietly.

Parker snorts. “No, that’s silly. Why?”

As soon as she says it, Parker thinks of a reason. Eliot doesn’t want her and Hardison to meet Sally. Archie didn’t want her to meet his family. It could be for the same reasons.

“Oh. Okay,” Parker says. She slumps into the couch a little and puts her phone away.

“Hey, I didn’t say no,” Eliot says. “Come with me if you want. But no sugar before the flight. Either of you.” He glares at both of them. “I mean it. This isn’t gonna be like when we went to Belgrade.”

“That was a _seventeen_ hour flight,” Hardison protests. “With _no_ internet! How else were we going to pass the time?”

“Not by playing volleyball with that poor guy’s hat,” Eliot growls.

Parker grins and bounces to her feet. “There’s a direct flight in an hour and a half,” she says. “Race you to the airport!”

***

They arrive to a morning that is already warm. Parker slept almost the whole flight, curled up beside Eliot, and now she’s wide awake. Eliot never sleeps around strangers so he’s looking a little tired.

Hardison is squinting through his sunglasses around the airport and carrying his bag like it’s too heavy. “We are definitely getting coffee before we go into town.”

“No,” Eliot says.

“Why the hell not?” Hardison asks. “I need _something_ to stay awake. The lady next to me was hogging the armrest the whole time.”

“Airport places are always a rip-off, that’s why not.”

Hardison moves closer to Eliot and lowers his voice. “All of us are rich, remember? We can afford airport coffee. We could _buy_ an airport coffee chain if we wanted.”

Eliot pushes his hair back and glares at Hardison. “Dammit Hardison! Stop announcing shit like that.”

“What? It’s not like Parker’s going to let anyone pick our pockets.”

Parker laughs. “Nobody’s going to go for us when there are so many easy marks around.” She jerks her head towards an old man with a cane who’s looking through the magazines in the store next to them. “Like him. Doesn’t see well, couldn’t chase you, and grew up before debit cards so he’ll have a bunch of cash.”

Hardison looks over his sunglasses at her. “Girl, don’t even think about it.”

She grins at him.

Eliot sighs heavily. “Come on,” he says, “Let’s go get a car.”

Parker’s grin gets bigger. “Can I pick?”

“We’re going to _rent_ a car,” Eliot says, as they start walking.

“I’ll catch up with you,” Hardison says.

“Hot chocolate for me,” Parker calls to him.

***

“ _No_ ,” Eliot says, again. He’s being even more grumpy than usual.

“You said I could pick!”

“We don’t _need_ a van,” Eliot growls.

The car rental lady is looking less happy now. When they first came up, she looked all excited, like lots of women do when Eliot smiles at them.

“But we always get a van,” Parker says, reasonably.

“This is a different kind of trip,” Eliot says.

“Then why can’t we get a convertible?”

“Because,” Eliot says, just like he said before.

The car rental lady clears her throat. “We do have a selection of SUVs that-”

“No!” Eliot and Parker say at the same time.

“Don’t get him started,” Parker half-whispers to the lady. “He’s all about the environment.”

Eliot grumbles but doesn’t go into his ‘fossil fuel emissions, SUVs are bad’ speech. Parker has it memorized anyway.

“Are you _still_ choosing?” Hardison asks, as he walks up with a tray of to-go cups. He has four. He points to one of them. “Here, E, you look like you need it.”

Eliot takes his cup. “Thanks,” he mutters.

Parker takes the hot chocolate one. “Tiny marshmallows?” she asks.

“Of course,” Hardison says. He smiles winningly at the car rental lady. “And one for you, for putting up with these two.”

She blinks at him. “Oh, I couldn’t… uh, thank you,” she stammers.

“You’re welcome,” says Hardison. He sets the lady’s coffee on the counter. “How about we let Eliot pick the type of car and you can pick the colour, Parker.”

Parker rolls her eyes. If Eliot doesn’t want her to pick, then he should have said so. “Green,” she says. She takes a sip of her hot chocolate.

Eliot sighs. “You can still pick, Parker. I… we don’t need anything fancy, that’s all.”

Parker nods. That makes sense. She’d been thinking ‘fun’ instead of ‘low profile’. “Okay. How about a Toyota Camry?”

The car rental lady is sneaking gulps of the coffee Hardison gave her. She nods vigourously and swallows. “We have those! We even have a green one.”

“We’ll take it,” Eliot says quickly.

While Eliot’s signing the paperwork, Hardison sits down on a nearby bench and pulls a tablet out of his bag. Parker perches next to him and watches. He curses the weakness of the airport wi-fi under his breath and pulls up the directions to Sally’s house.

Parker studies the map. She’s never been to Phoenix before, though she lived in Tucson for a few weeks when she was a kid.

“Hey, Parker?” Hardison asks. He doesn’t turn to look at her. “Just a heads up.”

Parker braces herself on the inside.

“Eliot might want to hang out with his sister alone,” Hardison says. “And he might not want to tell her everything.”

Well, duh. Parker never tells anybody _everything_. “Okay,” she says, waiting to see if there’s more.

“So we’ll just follow his lead, okay?” Hardison says, meeting her eyes. “Do whatever he wants to do.”

“What he really wants to do,” Parker says, “Like the coffee.”

Hardison leans back and looks at Parker like she just backflipped through a laser grid. “I guess so,” he says.

Parker says, “It’s hard to tell. But Sophie’s been teaching me.”

“What’s that about Sophie?” Eliot asks.

“Grifting lessons,” Parker says.

Just then, Parker feels a buzzing in her bag where it rests on her foot. She picks it up and fishes her phone out. Sophie is calling.

Parker answers the phone. “Are you a wizard?” Hardison says the Harry Potter books he likes are fiction but Sophie _is_ English like those wizards are.

“Am I a what? Parker, where are you? I have texted you ten bloody times already!”

“Why?”

“We have a new job. Nate called me at the crack of dawn.” Sophie is definitely annoyed.

Eliot and Hardison are both making faces at her. She waves a hand at them. “We’re busy,” Parker says.

“We?”

“Hardison and Eliot and me,” Parker says.

There is a pause that seems too long. “Do I want to know what you’re busy doing?” Sophie asks.

Parker thinks about this. “Yes,” she decides.

“Parker. Tell me.”

“We’re renting a car,” Parker says.

Eliot holds out his hand for the phone. Parker gives it to him. “Hey Sophie,” he says. “We’ll be back in a couple of days. I left a voicemail for Nate.” He listens for a minute and sighs. “Okay. Could ya tell him for me then? Thanks. Bye.” He pauses and then says, “ _Goodbye_ , Sophie,” in a much more growly way.

He ends the call and gives Parker back her phone. “Nate’s phone died,” he explains.

Hardison asks, “Died like he forgot to charge it, or _died_ died.”

“Permanently dead,” Eliot says. “Sophie says he texted us the new number but my phone is still off from the plane.”

Hardison’s phone is already in his hand. “Whoa, _twenty-seven_ texts! He’s going to wear the new one out at this rate. Doesn’t the man remember that we just finished a job yesterday?”

“Two days ago,” Eliot corrects.

“Hey man, until I sleep more than two hours in a row, it’s the same day to me,” Hardison says, standing up and hoisting his bag onto his shoulder.

Parker stands up too. Her bag has all of her getaway essentials: passports, money, lock picks, toothpaste, explosives, diamond-edged file blade. She won the race to the Boston airport because she had it in storage there. It’s important to have an exit planned, even if leaving the team behind is becoming harder to imagine every day.

She follows Eliot and Hardison out of the airport, listening to them argue about time.

***

“Eliot?” Parker asks, quietly.

They’ve been driving for a couple of hours now, circling around Sally’s neighbourhood. Spiralling, really. Closer and closer, then farther and farther.  Hardison is asleep sideways on the backseat, his feet against one of the doors.

Eliot takes a hand off the wheel to rub his face. “What?”

“Is Phoenix named after something?”

“A mythological bird.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah. When it dies, it burns up its body and is reborn out of the ashes.”

“Are there some around here?” Parker would like to see that. Fire is fun to watch.

“No, Parker, they’re not real.”

They are getting closer again. After a few minutes of silence, Eliot shakes his head and turns left instead of right, breaking the pattern. In another minute, they are two blocks away from Sally’s address. Then one.

Parker looks over her shoulder. “Hardison,” she says. He doesn’t move so she pokes him. That wakes him up.

“Huh?” he says, as Eliot pulls in to Sally’s driveway. When the car stops moving, Hardison opens his eyes all the way. “Oh. We’re here.”

They all get out of the car and Eliot leads the way to the door. He knocks twice.

Sally opens the door. She gasps loudly when she sees them.

“Oh my god,” she breathes. “But you’re…” Then she lunges forward and hugs Eliot.

He wasn’t ready for her to do that. He sways backward and Hardison puts his hand between Eliot’s shoulders to steady him.

Eliot hugs Sally back. She’s crying. She’s saying something over and over. When the hug ends, she holds on to Eliot’s arms. “You’re alive,” she says, smiling through her tears.

Eliot just stares at her, his eyes wide open like Parker has never seen.

Something tightens inside Parker, deep inside her chest. Sally thought that Eliot was dead. Sally thought that her brother was dead.

The anger is always there. It pushes at her now. She can’t stand here anymore, watching this reunion. They won’t understand why. So she has to stay but she can’t.

Sally hugs Eliot again, a short one this time. “I missed you _so much_ ,” she says.

“I missed you too,” he says.

Alice could stay. Alice doesn’t have any brothers. Vegetarian, bookkeeper, one sister, can make friends. Parker isn’t Alice but she can be Alice for a little while.

Sally shakes her head. “How did you… what…” She laughs and punches Eliot on the arm. “You couldn’t _call_ first?”

“Didn’t want to wake you up,” Eliot says. His voice is almost shaky. “Found out where you were last night.”

Sally notices Parker and Hardison for the first time. “You’d better come in,” she says.

She leads the way into the house, shoos Eliot into the living room, and sticks out her hand to Hardison. “Hi, I’m Sally-” she says and stops herself, a weird look on her face.

Hardison takes her hand. “I’m Alec,” he says. Somehow he makes that introduction sound natural. Parker had almost forgotten he had any name but Hardison.

Sally says, “Welcome.” She looks past Hardison to Parker.

“Alice White,” says Parker. She shakes Sally’s hand and remembers to smile. “My sister got married in Phoenix. It’s on Facebook.”

Sally’s eyebrows bunch up a little but she smiles back. “Nice to meet you,” she says.

Parker remembers Sophie’s rule about eye contact and looks away slowly after a count of three. She follows Hardison into the living room.

Sally sits. They sit. There is a silence.

“Nice place,” Eliot says.

Parker looks around. There is the couch where Eliot and Hardison are sitting and the two chairs where she and Sally are, and a low table in the middle. Further into the house, there’s a desk with a laptop on it. Messy stacks of paper taller than the laptop teeter around it. A few of them have fallen to the carpeted floor.

It helps to look around. What would Alice think of this room? She wouldn’t be counting exits or wondering about wall safes (four and unlikely).

Sally says, “It’s all right.”

“Who told you I was dead?” Eliot asks.

Sally lets out her breath. “Well, I went to see Dad about eight years ago.”

“Yeah?” Eliot’s voice doesn’t change but he is now completely still.

“Yeah. He said…” Sally pauses. “He said a lot of things I won’t repeat.” She looks at Hardison and Parker.

Eliot takes a deep breath. “Was he the reason you left?” he asks. “Did he…do…”

“No!” Sally says, surprised. “I left because you were going to.”

Eliot stares at her.

“Wow, that sounds awful,” Sally says, talking faster. “I meant that I left because I needed to get out too. I couldn’t face being there without you.” She looks at her hands. “It was stupid to run off in the night like that. I wish now I’d done it differently.”

Eliot laughs. “Me too. I spent _years_ , Han, not knowing anything.”

“Same here,” Sally snaps. Her eyes look just like Eliot’s do when he’s angry. “Why are you here now and not a long time ago?”

“Why? Oh, how about, you changed your _name_?” Eliot snaps back.

“I was sixteen! I wanted to be somebody else.”

“Everybody wants that sometimes,” Eliot says. Now he sounds tired.

Sally sighs. “I’m sorry, Eliot,” she says. “I never meant to hide from you.”

 Eliot says, “I should have found you anyway.”

Sally clears her throat. “I’m a terrible hostess,” she says. “Anybody want anything to drink? Coffee? Water?”

Hardison shakes his head. So does Parker.

Sally gets up anyway. “I’ll be right back,” she says.

Parker wonders if Sally is going to leave through the back door. She doesn’t want her to because that would mean she _was_ hiding from Eliot and lying about it.

Hardison grins at Sally when she brings out a tray of water glasses and puts it on the low table. “Thanks,” he says. “It’s warm out today, isn’t it?”

Sally asks, “How do you know Eliot?”

Hardison says, “Work,” at the same time Eliot says, “We’re friends.” Hardison’s eyebrows go up when he hears that. Parker can see him looking at Eliot sideways too.

Sally laughs. “Work friends,” she says. “Were you in the army too?”

“No way,” Hardison says.

Sally looks at Parker. “How about you?” she asks.

“Jury duty,” Parker says.

“Must have been some trial,” Sally says.

Parker says, “We’re not supposed to talk about it.” There’s a silence and she remembers to smile at Sally.

Hardison smiles at Parker. She wishes he wouldn’t because it’s his special smile and it’s making her feel like Parker again.

“So, what have you been up to?” Eliot asks, raising his eyebrows at Sally.

Sally tells him about how she’s pursuing a Master’s Degree in engineering as well as learning to be a pilot. She mentions that her partner is a librarian. She proudly talks about her three stepkids and how well they’re doing in school. She asks Eliot a few questions but backs off when he doesn’t really answer them.

When they’re getting up to leave, Sally says, quietly, “Does Mom know you’re alive?”

Eliot shrugs. “Maybe,” he says.

Sally sighs. “I haven’t seen her since she left but some years, I get a Christmas card. She still moves around a lot. All my letters get sent back.”

At the door, Sally gets Eliot’s phone number and gives him hers. They hug again. Eliot’s blinking a lot when he turns away from Sally.

As they are walking back to the car, Hardison nudges Parker. “Good job. You handled the small talk,” he says.

“Alice did,” Parker says.

“You’re Alice,” Hardison says.

They keep saying that. They don’t understand. Parker is bad at explaining.

***

Eliot drives until they find a hotel. They get three rooms near each other. The boys go into theirs to nap until dinner. Parker is only in her room long enough to drop her bag and check the window. It’s made to open two inches and no further, but she could break it pretty easily with the hideous lamp that’s on the bedside table.

She leaves through the door, since you can’t close a broken window behind you.

Parker is hungry so she steals some food from a stand near the hotel. The kebab is okay. The fried rice is better. She doesn’t have anywhere specific in mind to go. She heads for the tallest building she can see, just for fun. Concentrating on watching the crowds of people, she sees tons of easy marks but lets them keep their wallets for now.

A few blocks from the building she’s aiming for, Parker hears a kid yelling. When she looks, she can see him.

“I don’t know you! You’re a stranger!” the boy shouts, trying to pull away from a man gripping his arm. The man is trying to push him into the back seat of a car and is smiling awkwardly around at the people around.

“I told you, no candy before dinner!” he says loudly, “Now, let’s go home, Trevor.”

“No!” the kid yells.

Parker sprints over. The man sees her and quickly shoves the kid into the car. Parker catches the door just before it slams. She pulls it back open, hitting the man in the stomach with her elbow.

“Run,” she tells the kid. He scrambles out of the car.

The man tries to reach past Parker but she stops him by punching him in the face. There’s a crack. The man clutches his mouth, crying out. Blood pours through his fingers.

He lunges forward. Parker slams the car door to give herself some space and kicks him in the balls as hard as she can. The man falls to the ground.

She backs away from him. A bunch of people have stopped to watch the fight. Most of them have phones in their hands. She looks for the kid. He’s halfway down the street, tearfully talking to a woman with a stroller. A different woman comes running out of a store and hugs him. She’s crying too.

Parker sees the kid hug her back and turns to the man. He’s gone. A second later, his car peels away from the curb with a squeal of tires. Time for her to leave too.

***

Parker wanders around for a while longer. At about 5pm, Hardison texts her.

_Dinner in 10? I am Starving_

She texts back, _eta 20min_

It takes a little less than that but only because she ran part of the way. Her scalp is all itchy with sweat that’s easier to feel in the cold air-conditioning of the hotel lobby. Eliot and Hardison are waiting for her.

Eliot’s eyes sweep over her and his face gets more scowly. “Parker, you shouldn’t be running in this heat.”

Parker glares at him. “I was going to be late.”

“Later than the time you could have texted me to change?” Hardison asks, raising his eyebrows.

She glares at him too. “You’re hungry,” she says, because _of course_ she would hurry so he would eat sooner.

Hardison puts his hands out palms down in his ‘my bad’ way. “Okay, okay,” he says. “I’m hungry, Eliot’s cranky, let’s get going.”

Eliot humphs but doesn’t say anything.

“Where are we going?” asks Parker.

“Sally recommended a place nearby,” Eliot answers, stressing ‘Sally’ a little bit.

“Is she coming?”

“No. We’re going for lunch tomorrow instead.”

Parker nods and falls into step with the boys as they leave the hotel. The restaurant is only a few blocks away and it’s nearly empty when they get there. Parker and Eliot sit facing each other, with Hardison sitting between them on Eliot’s right and Parker’s left.

When Parker reaches for her water glass, Hardison says, “Damn! What happened?”

She pulls her hand under the table instinctively. She brings it back out and shows Hardison the dried blood on her knuckles. “A scrape,” she says, shrugging.

Hardison starts to say something and stops himself. He gently holds the tips of her fingers so he can tilt her hand to see better. His hand is cooler than hers.

“How did it happen?” Eliot asks, quietly.

Parker shrugs again. “Punched a guy.”

“In the mouth?” Eliot asks, but like he already knows.

“Yes.”

“Hitting the nose would be easier on you,” Eliot says. He’s looking at her hand, at Hardison still holding her hand. Then he blinks and meets Parker’s eyes. “You could break your hand, striking incorrectly.”

“I know,” she says. He’s told her that already. Protecting her important thief’s hands is part of why Eliot hadn’t wanted to show her many punches when he started teaching her.

“Does it still hurt?” Hardison asks.

Parker shakes her head. He lets go of her hand. Her fingers feel all tingly for a second.

Parker swallows and looks at the menu. The waitress comes by a minute later. She flirts with all of them as she takes their orders.

They get a plate of spicy buffalo chicken wings to start. Parker and Eliot get into a discussion about whether or not buffalos actually _have_ wings, while Hardison eats more than half of the wings, making happy noises the whole time.

Hardison orders a cheeseburger and fries, which makes Eliot roll his eyes. Eliot gets pasta with grilled chicken, sundried tomatoes, and artichokes. It has a lemon white wine butter sauce that’s sweet and tart at the same time. It’s harder to steal pasta off someone else’s plate than fries but Parker manages it. She gets chicken strips and fries. Hardison steals hers when she steals his.

After they’ve finished, after Eliot’s put money on the table for the bill and Parker’s stolen it and put it back, all three of them walk back to the hotel. They end up in Hardison’s room.

Neither he nor Eliot ask Parker why she punched a guy in the mouth. There’s no con to endanger so it isn’t really their business. She ends up telling them anyway.

When she’s done, Hardison asks, “And everybody else was just walking by?”

“People do that,” Eliot says.

Hardison shakes his head. “That kid was lucky to have you there looking out for him, Parker.”

Parker grins at him. “I remember the licence plate of the man’s car.”

Hardison laughs. “Consider his life _ruined_.”

Eliot is grinning too. He and Parker give Hardison suggestions while he types rapidly. Ten minutes later, it’s done. The would-be kidnapper is firmly framed for robbery and assault, complete with an outstanding arrest warrant.

Hardison leans back in the desk chair. His satisfied look turns to one of brief panic as Eliot catches the chair before it falls all the way back. “Thanks, man,” he says, gasping a little.

Eliot snorts, letting go of the chair.

Parker gets an idea. “Eliot, show Hardison how to strike,” she says.

They both look at her. “I’ll watch,” she says.

Eliot looks at Hardison. Hardison says, “Okay. As long as there’s no demonstrating choke holds on me. That shit in Wisconsin was uncool.”

“Nebraska,” Eliot corrects.

“Oh, so you do remember,” Hardison says, sarcastically.

Eliot opens his mouth but Parker waves at them impatiently. “Go on,” she says.

They move the bed aside. Parker watches while Eliot fixes Hardison’s stance and gets fake-annoyed at his joking comments. She watches while Hardison performs the first strike in slow motion so it lands softly. She watches them both, with a hunger for more than food.

She could watch them all night.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes on Hannah's chosen name:  
> Sally Ride was the first American woman in space.  
> Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space.
> 
> 'Parker' is a real Jason Statham movie that I have seen with my own eyes. It's about a thief whose team double-crosses him.
> 
> Shout-out to Laura for last-minute food-related brainstorming and general encouragement. ilu :D


End file.
